Eden Hazard can seem a bit of a tease. The footballer certainly is, a mix of shimmies and dummies, improbably strong for his small dimensions, and at his best, delightfully uncontainable.
The man? He has spent quite a lot of his career making others second-guess his next step. That is simply the business he is in, as an exceptional talent, always in demand, weighing up his options.
Hazard lately has been almost as candid as he can be, as one of the parties in a negotiation where two clubs are also involved and a possible nine-figure transfer - €100 million (Dh410m) or more - is at stake, about his desire to make Wednesday night’s Europa League final against Arsenal in Baku his last competitive match for Chelsea.
A long courtship with Real Madrid looks as ardent as it ever has been, his desire to conquer the biggest prize in club football, the Uefa Champions League, is unfulfilled and with one year left on his current contract, he appears to have picked Spain as his next home.
The European Cup target is important. Hazard expected he might have come nearer to it when he signed for the London club. Seven years ago he put out a message on social media to declare: “I am signing for the Champions League winners.”
The prior months had been a long will-he-or-won’t-he tease as a clutch of heavyweights, including Manchester City and United chased the Belgian prodigy who, at Lille, had been named Ligue 1’s Player of the Year twice before he turned 22.
Chelsea paid around €40m, and Hazard, now 28, very quickly discovered he had joined a club with an oblique view of the benefits of internal stability, an English football culture that celebrated the robust tackle to the point of brutality and that, while his employers were indeed champions of Europe for the first time in their history when they welcomed him, that was not a status they would be maintaining with great care.
His early days in Blue often finished with his calves and ankles black and blue. Hazard’s opening 10 minutes in the Premier League were a foretaste: they featured the first of his 91 assists for Chelsea, a superb through-ball executed after he swivelled away from an attempted manhandling; then a Chelsea penalty awarded after Wigan’s Ivan Ramis brought him down; then a horrible scythe into the back of his legs from Wigan captain Gary Caldwell.
The fouls never ceased. The count of infringements against him has reached 638 in the Premier League alone over his seven seasons. Hazard now bears all that remarkably well, and has visibly matured into a model senior professional, taking the many knocks with stoicism and, most of the time, an air of unspoilt calm.
Back at beginning, he learned many lessons fast. Hazard’s first European outing for Chelsea would be a chastening 4-1 loss to Atletico Madrid.
By his first London December, the title-holders had made the wrong sort of history by being eliminated in the group phase of the Champions League and although they went on to win the Europa League at the tail of that up-and-down campaign, Hazard missed the final against Benfica with injury.
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Chelsea fans in Baku welcome team for Europa League final
On Wednesday night, in Baku, he has the opportunity to make partial amends, and close off a chapter with a pleasing symmetry.
“My first trophy at Chelsea was the Europa League,” he said, teasing at the idea of an imminent farewell, “and it would be a nice last trophy."
His other main trophies are the pair of Premier League titles he galvanised Chelsea towards, in 2015 and in 2017, under the third and the fifth different managers he has served at this most trigger-happy club.
He did not always see eye to eye with Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte, but he was not alone for that in a Chelsea squad which has always had noisier voices in the dressing-room than his, though seldom contained a more brilliant match-winner or entertainer.
He will look back on his his time on London and reflect that the almost 30 matches he was asked to play at centre-forward, and not in his preferred role, out wide or just behind a main striker, were about 30 too many.
But under Conte and the current manager Maurizio Sarri, Hazard was often considered the best option to spearhead the attack, with his adhesive close control, his accuracy as a finisher and the hardiness he developed against the relentless fouls.
On Wednesday night, Sarri should spare him the task of leading the line, give him a target forward, Olivier Giroud or Gonzalo Higuain to play off, and so invite Hazard to pick up possession in advanced midfield and run at opponents.
If he is at his best, that prospect will alarm Arsenal. If it is to be a vintage Hazard night, Baku will be bewitched by it.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Blah
Started: 2018
Founder: Aliyah Al Abbar and Hend Al Marri
Based: Dubai
Industry: Technology and talent management
Initial investment: Dh20,000
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 40
'Moonshot'
Director: Chris Winterbauer
Stars: Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse
Rating: 3/5
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
All about the Sevens
Cape Town Sevens on Saturday and Sunday: Pools A – South Africa, Kenya, France, Russia; B – New Zealand, Australia, Spain, United States; C – England, Scotland, Argentina, Uganda; D – Fiji, Samoa, Canada, Wales
HSBC World Sevens Series standing after first leg in Dubai 1 South Africa; 2 New Zealand; 3 England; 4 Fiji; 5 Australia; 6 Samoa; 7 Kenya; 8 Scotland; 9 France; 10 Spain; 11 Argentina; 12 Canada; 13 Wales; 14 Uganda; 15 United States; 16 Russia
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
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The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
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Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
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SPECS
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
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Available: Now
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
